JESSICA ELLIS
photography and collage

Artist Statement

Wunderkamera
           
            The Wunderkammer of the 16th and 17th centuries, a precursor to the natural history museum, showcased natural and scientific wonders of the world. The title Wunderkamera combines the German words for “wonder” and “camera” referencing the name of these antiquated European wonder cabinets while also describing the power of the photograph. Wunderkamera is a mock cabinet of curiosities created to inspire wonder and a renewed sense of curiosity about photography’s representational power.
           
            I explore the ability of photography to transcend its subject and become truer than the subject itself. The natural and scientific subject matter accentuates the documentary aspect of photography while referencing the objects of natural history museums (an institution generally trusted to represent nature without falsification). These photographic representations illustrate photography’s power as a representational tool. I am interested in exploring photography’s role in our world. I create life-like sculptures with photographs to emphasize photography’s unique role in documentation and its ability to recreate reality.
           
            Barthe’s Butterflies displays a collection of insects in a shadow box. The box appears to be straight from a museum or a personal collection of natural specimens. Upon closer examination, the viewer discovers that twenty of the insects displayed are photographs, which have been cut out and pinned down among the natural specimens. An even closer look reveals that many of the labels pinned with the insects define the conditions in which the insects were photographed, not the insects themselves.
           
            My subject matter and creative process inform this exploration and questioning of the reasons photographs are often assumed to be accurate representations of our world. When I transform a photograph into a three-dimensional object, I allow it to take form as the subject once more. I believe that flat photographs have this same ability because of our cultural connection to these images as documents or pieces of reality.